Compare for example Beit Hillel and Beit Shamai on washing hands before bread, and which parts of table-setting may be touched without concern for purity (for potential Teruma): [Is this seen in Brachot 8.4?][I] Does this show that when they are called lenient & strict (i.e. in those few cases which are said to be the cases where this occurs) that they are concerned with the strictness of...
{24/10/2016} Even approaching the approaching of this thing requires consideration. {24/10/2016} The goal is a proper study. The means is to know how to study. The precursor is to wonder how to know how to study. More premises: The subject of the goal is an Aleph. (#Borges) A premise of the means is that the value of a study can vary. A fundamental question within wondering is, how is a personal...
{04/11/2016} This is my own path. I’m writing this for no one except myself. If anyone should read this, be warned: You can not judge, you can not comprehend, you can not apply. Here are the wonders of my life. Who can claim them for their own? 10* for 8** for 9** of 2**/****. And at such a young age and such through such mundane experiences! Errors such as a faux-10 directing 3** receiving...
Mimatai korim shema b’arvit…[I] Sof ma’ase[1]… The Mishnah was packaged to ensure the survival of key structures within the oral tradition, which although requiring great losses of wisdom, was deemed necessary for the great journey ahead. The terrible voyage had not yet hinted the breadth of its passages, nor depths, nor sense of lost horizons. The Mishnah begins with a question, but the purpose...
Editorial notes: This essay appears in two versions, the first documented as a draft in Shai’s A BASHFUL HOPE blog (see For the Complexed (v1)) and another version found as a Google Document. The two versions have a similar structure but somewhat different content and the version showing here has been adapted to merge the two versions to form a more complete version of this document. It...
Editorial notes: This essay was not made available (published) in the original blog and is visibly incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 12/12/2016. This essay appears in two versions, the first documented here, and the second, For the Complexed (v2), recovered from Shai’s Google Drive as a set of a four-part series. The two versions have a similar...
I am small and the world is great and beyond my comprehension right now. This at least I can say without doubt. But here is a dream. Once there was a fish in a fishbowl. There were pebbles on the ground, water all around, a toy castle, and a filtration system of some sort. Every so while food would fall from above the water, from where there was no water, a place of nothingness except pain of...
Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 20/11/2015 This is a variation-on-a-theme. Where I previously wrote on reading Talmud with Levinas, here I revisit the issue, simplifying some aspects, and expanding on the concept and role of will. There is one idea I wish...
Editorial notes: On this day Shai publishes his first post dedicated specifically to Judaism. This is significant as it is the beginning of the fourth phase in Shai’s intellectual journey. After having first devoted a substantial body of writing to scientific inquiry and to the study of ancient and classical Western philosophers, and having recently commenced his study of Eastern Wisdom, Shai...
